A few years back my brother-in-law Sam was starting a new job and was required to get a physical as part of the hiring process. A standard X-ray revealed a spot on his lungs and further testing confirmed it was cancer. The diagnosis came about two years after he’d quit smoking, but he had been a smoker for many years and was somewhere in his early 40s. Thankfully, because it was caught and treated so early, he is still with us today and doing great. But what if he hadn't had that physical? Earlier this week the U.S. Preventive Services...

Alliqua (Langhorne, Pennsylvania), a wound management and drug delivery company, has seen a lot of changes in the past six months, starting at the top.

Jeffrey Oppenheim, MD, knows as well as anyone how significant the need is for offering patients a better treatment option for recurrent lumbar disc herniation after discectomy. He not only treats disc reherniation as a surgeon, but he's been on the patient side of lumbar disc surgery.

The best way to prevent lung cancer is to quit smoking or never start, but the next best thing is early diagnosis. Taking a giant leap toward catching lung cancer in its earliest stage, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF; Washington) has issued a draft recommendation giving its second highest approval rating for routine CT screening for those at high risk for lung cancer.

Boston Scientific (Natick, Massachusetts) has received FDA 510(k) clearance for a next-generation 3-D cardiac mapping and navigation system designed to improve clarity, efficiency, and physician confidence during catheter ablations and electrophysiology (EP) procedures to diagnose or treat a variety of conditions in which the heart beats abnormally.

Boston Scientific (Natick Massachusetts) reported a second-quarter profit that beat expectations and forecast growth in the third period on improved sales of its surgical devices and cardiology products. The company generated sales of $1.809 billion and adjusted EPS of 18 cents. Shares rose 9.1% to $10.49 in early trading.

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is still in early innings here in the U.S. and it seems like new players are constantly entering the game. While the powerhitters in this space so far, companies like Edwards Lifesciences (Irvine, California), which was first to market in the U.S. with its Sapien valve, have the advantage of being the ones that broke open the game, younger companies on deck have the advantage of introducing improved, next-generation technology to the field.